Seorak-san National Park

If you think about it, National Parks in South Korea are about the equivalent of State Parks in North Carolina.  South Korea is similar in area to NC, and thus the many national parks cannot all be like the ones in the entire USA.  This was definitely true with Gyereongsan  National Park near our city in South Korea.  However, in our last week in South Korea, we visited a national park that would be worthy of that title in any size country, Seoraksan National Park.  We barely scraped the surface of the miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers) of hiking that could be done in this park.  It is a huge mountain range in the NE corner.  From this mountain range there is a continuous slope to the Pacific Ocean.  Its amazing to climb up the mountains and then view the ocean.

We stayed at the town of Sokcho (famous for squid), and bused to the national park.  Sokcho is amazing in itself having once been a park of North Korea before the war moved the border North.  Many North Korean refugees settled in the area, so the food is supposed to be a mix of North and South.

Some of Sokcho's famous squid

Back to the mountain climbing, we decided to climb the rocks on the edge of the park to get a good view of the rest of the park that we didn't have enough time to explore.  On the way we climbed past two places where you could stop and eat.  It was very strange, suddenly there were a lot of outdoor tables, a bathroom, and a restaurant with ladies trying to sell you water and rice wine.

Right before the extremely steep part was a small Buddhist cave and a famous rock that you were supposed to try to wobble.  Apparently large groups are able to shake it, but it never will fall.  We were not strong enough to move it, but we tried.

Trying to wobble the rock!

 Oh, and I forgot to mention that around the temple, carved into the surrounding rocks were poems!  Lots and lots of poems, in old Korean i.e. Chinese.  We couldn't read any of them, but they were still pretty.

Next came the steep steps that went up and up and up.  We finally made it to the top, and the view was amazing!  Every direction there were forests and mountains, until the land evened off towards the ocean.  Even more amazing, there was a little shop at the very top that sold coffee and ramen.  The person who runs that little shop must be in really good shape.  The rest of the park was really pretty, someday we have to go back and explore the rest.

The view from the top

Later we hiked up a river to a waterfall.  It was also beautiful.  Also not to be missed is the local history museum!  They have architecture from different areas of North Korea, and we got to see an amazing performance of the spinney hat drum guys!  It was the best one I have seen in Korea, and the only other people watching were kindergartners, so we had a great view!  This is probably one of the most remote and most beautiful areas in all of South Korea!

Membership Training

Membership Training, or "MT" as it is called in konglish, is a time where labs or departments go off and bond.  Traditionally, there is no actual "training" involved.  Usually, it is a time for students to get together and bond without professors, and there is lots of alcohol involved.  Our lab is very very odd in that the professor actually wants to get to know his students outside the lab, and that he does not drink alcohol.
When he decided that our lab should have an MT, the Koreans in our lab had no idea what to do.  We found it amusing because there are hundreds of little team building games that we could use, but the people planning had trouble thinking outside the traditional "MT" box, especially when they learned both our professor and the new research professor wanted to come along and participate in the games.  Having fun with your professor is a scary thing for some people.
We also needed to have a different MT because two members of our lab are Muslim and don't drink, and one of the guys brought his wife and 1 year old son with him.  It was a lot of fun having them around, and the traditional MT wasn't going to work.
We ended up going to a "pension" (a large, rent-able vacation home) in a very beautiful part of Korea.

The view behind our pension.

Behind the pension was a giant mudflat full of oysters.  When you walked on the path between them, the oysters would squirt at you.  It was a drizzly day, so the clouds looked amazing!
There I learned many new things about my labmates.  First of all, the Korean guys like to dance to k-pop (even dances done by girls).  Secondly, Koreans are afraid of moths because their mothers told them that the dust from their wings are toxic (NOT TRUE!).  And last, singing is a common talent.  We ran out of games and switched to a talent show.  Everyone either sang or danced except me (I played spoons).
The next day we went to the shore and saw a famous rock feature while playing in tidal pools.

Dr. Yim, Irfan, and Riley in front of the famous rocks.

Then we ate tons of clams and went home.  It was really nice.  Even though this was a different sort of MT, I think the Koreans still had a good time.  Our professor is trying to change the culture of the labs one person at a time!